Blogs
Greater NW Pride: What Does LGBTQ+ Mean? A Primer
3/21/2019
What Does LGBTQ+ Mean? A Primer Language matters. And naming and labeling matters. One’s “sexual orientation” is a social construct and context dependent, which we all use to identify and self-identify just one part of our life. So, I am a gay, cisgender, white, male, Christian, who prefers the personal pronoun “he/him/his;” I am able bodied and hearing. Our gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, age, ability, hearing, being deaf, disability, socioeconomic class, and religion also matter and ...
Spirit Alive: What's Next?
3/19/2019
Spring...A Time to Become Fully Alive in an Ever-Changing Context
Greater NW Pride: Beyond the Rainbow Flag
3/12/2019
Beyond the Rainbow Flag (Or “Once the Rainbow Flags Are Down, Then What?”) Since the vote taken by the delegates at the United Methodist Church’s (UMC) specially called General Conference, my Facebook page with other UMC contacts exploded with images of rainbow flags, banners, bunting, pics of whirligigs, candles, hats, pins, ribbons, hair bows, and tassels. Everywhere I looked on various UMC websites, there were more rainbow memorabilia, with banners draping church signs, rainbows flags ...
Greater NW Pride: What St. Harvey Milk Has to Say to Queer UMC Folk
3/7/2019
What St. Harvey Milk Has to Say to Queer UMC Folk Above my desk in my office space in the OR-ID United Methodist Church Conference Center is a modern-day icon of St. Harvey Milk, one of my heroes in the LGBTQ movement, painted by the local artist Chris Haberman. In this moment of change within the United Methodist Church, I’ve asked myself, “What would Harvey do?” After all, he was in the nexus of change in modern American society, and his story, like many other stories of LGBTQ people in ...
Observations from St. Louis
3/6/2019
Your Oregon-Idaho delegates were deeply disappointed in the outcome, a step toward punitive legalism and away from inclusion of all God’s people. As your lay delegate, I’d like to share some observations
